The traditional limitation of network based inter process messaging and control systems is the incompatibility of the messaging and system control conventions between resources such as various network operating systems and network topologies. With the advent of more ubiquitous networks, significant effort has been expended to enable various operating systems to interact at a basic level by enabling the transfer of data to and from other system environments through the use of compatible data files. The widespread availability of operating system support for data file transfer between incompatible operating environments provides an effective means of automating the transfer of messages and the execution of control instructions between systems that might otherwise be incompatible.
In imaging systems, many vendors have unsuccessfully tried to connect the database directly to the imaging process software across incompatible networks. There is a need for a new operating system independent protocol which does not employ operating system dependent messaging systems such as dynamic data exchange (DDE) or object linking and embedding (OLE) and which operates at a higher level so that the protocol deals directly with the process software.